I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13

My two-year-old grandaughter, Sierra, had recently learned two new words, “I can’t.” She found she met a brick wall each time she declared them, but declare them she did. While sitting on the kitchen counter-top working diligently in a drawer, her mother asked her to please leave the drawer alone. Sierra objected to the request with her favored expression, “I can’t.” Rachel, Sierra’s mother, gave her the instruction one more time, to which Sierra replied, “I can’t; I’m stuck.”

From a two-year-old child, these words with their big meanings sounded somewhat amusing to me. However they were packed with a message. I, too, was feeling stuck in a rather distasteful attitude. I found myself determined that “I can’t move beyond this.“ For one full week I had reeled with a critical spirit. I flung out unkind retorts in an effort to control my world and the people in it. I wanted to sit in a depressed mode, with my complaints ever before me. I felt miserably stuck and almost convinced “I can’t get free of it.“ At fifty years old, those words were anything but amusing.

Later, during the dinner hour in Sierra’s home, her daddy said to her, “Sierra, I’d like you to take a bite of your bread.” Teasingly he added, “or can’t you?” The resolved Miss responded to that comment. “Yes, I can”, and she took her bite.

Hummmm, I sighed, “Yes, I can.” If my two-year-old granddaughter knew she could, certainly I could too. I called out to my Father, my consistent forgiving empowering Source, and repented of my sin of grumbling. I set my heart on “Yes, I can”, and chose a grateful spirit.

I am not stuck; I will allow the presence of the Lord to strengthen me in listing the many blessings I possess. I laid down the claim that I had the right to be angry when life doesn’t give me what I wanted. I purged my spirit of bitterness and negative words, and enjoyed again the freedom of a heart that can. I, like Sierra, also met a rock wall while living in the “I can’t” practice mode, and I will proclaim that it’s not peaceful there.